Bad Luck with Love
by Great Angemon
Summary: After a bad break up in the middle of a crowded restaurant, Zelda is left crying at her booth. Luckily, a blonde haired man comes to her rescue, and helps her feel better. Implied Zelink, not really romantic, I don't think, with implied Zelda/Bellum.


Bad Luck with Love

By GreatAngemon

Zelda's body quaked with sobs. She lifted her hands to her face, trying and failing to wipe away not only her tears, but also her shame. How could she have been so naïve? So foolish and so stupid?

_Of course_ he hadn't liked her; it had all been a ploy, a ploy she wished she'd seen through much sooner. With a final sniff, Zelda raised her head. She knew her makeup was running over her face. She could see it in the faces of the onlookers, but she didn't care. All she cared about now was getting home. Home, where she was free from all problems, even if only briefly.

She took a disdainful look at the plate of food before her. She'd never even liked Terminian cuisine so why she'd suggested that particular restaurant was beyond her comprehension. She began sliding off of the bench where she'd been, until recently, sitting together with her "date".

But before she could get out of the booth, another man sat down beside her, effectively cutting off her escape. "Excuse me," Zelda said. She tried to sound polite, but the words came out very garbled, due to the fact that her nose was now running, and she was still stifling sobs.

The man looked around, slightly surprised that there was someone on the bench with him. "Oh, sorry." As he spoke he grinned, a strangely uplifting and butterflies-in-the-stomach inducing grin. Zelda felt the strange urge to smile.

But he didn't move. He looked back over the edge of the bench's back, and Zelda tried again. "Excuse me, could you please move?"

The man looked around again, his tangled mess of long blonde hair swinging behind him as he did so. "Oh, yeah, hold on a minute." He twisted where he sat once more and then ducked under the table. For a moment, Zelda sat stunned. Then another young man walked past the table, this one with red hair.

"Hey, didja just see a guy with blonde hair walk by here?" he asked. Zelda was about to say that he was under the table, but something stopped her.

"Nope, sorry." The man walked away, and Zelda let the blonde man slide his way back up to his seat.

"Thanks," he said, grinning again. He grabbed a potato-wedge from the plate beside him and took a bite. "I'm Link. What's your name?"

Zelda, for but a moment, thought about lying, or refusing to answer, but the answer escaped her lips before she could say anything else. "Zelda. I-I'm Zelda." Was that a stutter? She hadn't stuttered for years – not since she'd been in high-school, talking to her cute crush, or else giving an oral report.

"Nice to meet you, Zelda." He took another wedge from the plate, looked around on the table, grabbed a small bowl with some dressing in it, dipped the potato into it, and then threw the food into his mouth. "Thanks for covering for me with Mido, by the way."

"What?" Zelda asked, slightly confused.

Link nodded his head ever so slightly towards the red-head who was still asking the other patrons for Link's whereabouts. "That's my older brother, Mido. I kinda just pulled a prank on him, and I needed a convenient place to hide."

"You did… what?"

"When he went to the bathroom, I threw some red pepper flakes in his food."

"And he's angry over that? Red pepper flakes aren't so bad."

"I ordered these ones online," Link said, pulling a little glass jar out of his pocket. The label read 'Lon-Lon Ranch's Finest Extra Spicy Red Pepper Flakes! Caution! Do not ingest if you cannot tolerate spicy food.'

"I've had those before," Zelda said. "They're spicy as hell." She smiled slightly at her use of the word hell; she'd never been one for even light profanity.

Link flashed his devilish grin again, replacing the jar in his pocket. It was then that he noticed the redness around Zelda's eyes and her slightly congested breathing. "What's wrong?"

Zelda paused for a moment. She'd just met this man, and yet she felt that she could trust him with the truth. Or, at least, a part of it. "I just had a fight with my, erm, boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend," she amended.

"Oh, that's too bad." He seemed to be genuinely upset for her. "Hey, tell you what, you can come over to my table. My mom and dad are celebrating their anniversary. Plus, a new guest will keep Mido from hitting me. Too hard, anyway."

Zelda smiled again. "Thanks, but I don't think so. I don't want to intrude."

"It's no problem," he said. "In fact, I want you to come."

"No, really, I don't want to." She knew she was sounding rude now, but she also didn't care. The day she'd had gave her the right to be rude.

"Oh, okay." Link's grin disappeared, but sprang almost instantly back onto his face. "I'll just hang out here then." He reached for a discarded fork on the table, pulled a bowl of salad closer to himself, and then began shoveling the food into his mouth.

Zelda stared disbelievingly at him. Here he was, a total stranger, inviting her to his parents' anniversary party, and now helping himself to her food. Not that she'd wanted it anyway, but still…

"So, tell me what's wrong," Link said between bites. He still had that air of trustworthiness, despite his apparent lack of manners.

"It's nothing," Zelda lied. She didn't want her secrets spilled, not even to a stranger that she'd probably never see again. "Just a stupid, uh… misunderstanding, you might say."

"A stupid misunderstanding doesn't warrant those eyes." He motioned to her with the fork. Zelda grabbed her purse, opened it, and took out a small hand-mirror. Her eyes were red and puffy from being rubbed.

"Look, can I just leave? I just wanna go home and get some sleep."

"Sure you can leave. You just need to talk to me first. I'm not moving till I get some answers."

"Are you always this insufferable?"

"Usually, yes. That's why I don't have a girlfriend."

'_Real smooth,_' Zelda thought. '_Nice way to slip it in that you're single, without seeming too much like a jerk._'

"Well, I can't imagine why," Zelda said. "Insufferablilty is sexy. All my exes are like that."

"All?" Link asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I'm not some sort of 'player', if that's what you're thinking. I just have crummy luck with guys."

"Well, don't worry." He grinned again. "I won't walk out on you. Not yet, anyway."

Zelda giggled slightly. She decided to open up. She trusted Link. "He just wanted me for one thing."

"What?"

"You asked what the fight was about. He only wanted me for one thing." Then, at the same time, both said two completely different things. Zelda said, "Sex."

Link said, "Your home cooking." Zelda eyed him disbelievingly. Link did the same at her. "What? Are you a terrible cook or something?"

"Well, no, but I-"

"Liar."

"What?"

"I bet you're a horrible cook. He broke up with you because you wouldn't ever cook for him."

Zelda felt the desire to laugh at this strange man's foolish antics, but suppressed it. "Um, no, that isn't quite how it happened."

"Then explain."

Zelda debated mentally for a few moments, and then said, "Alright. We'd been dating a few months. I thought we were getting along great."

"Aside from the fact that you never cooked for him," Link interjected.

"Um, right. Anyway, he asked if I had anywhere in mind for dinner tonight, and I suggested here. Anyway, we were about halfway through, and he says that he's sick of it.

"I ask what he's talking about, and he says that unless I sleep with him, we're through." She grimaced. "Just the thought of sleeping with him, now anyway, sickens me."

"You're right," Link said. "You do have crummy luck with guys." He pushed the now empty salad bowl away."You got anything else to eat?"

Zelda smiled again, pushing her almost untouched plate towards him. "Here." Without a moment's pause, Link began shoveling the food into his mouth with frenzied gusto. "So, why are you hiding out over here with me, instead of visiting with your family?"

"Hiding from my family," Link said through a mouthful of food. He swallowed. "I hate these get-togethers, but my mom and dad make all of us come on their anniversary."

"Oh." Zelda picked up her small hand mirror again and began looking at her red eyes.

Before she could say anything further, Link had risen from his seat. "Thanks for the grub," he said, smiling. "I hope you feel better soon. And think about that guy that broke up with you. I think you'll realize that he may not have been right for you if that's what he wanted, and you didn't.

"Or, I dunno, maybe you'll realize that you should have cooked for him, or at least tried not to poison him with your cooking. Anyway, nice meeting you."

He walked away. Zelda was left staring after him. For the past twenty minutes, she had wanted him to leave, and to go home, but now she wanted to continue sitting. She took Link's advice, and thought about her now ex-boyfriend.

Bellum had always seemed so kind, but now that she thought back, he'd never been sweet or loving. He'd always said that she looked beautiful when she'd been dressed up for a party, but never before she'd put on makeup or after she'd just woken up, when she'd have loved to hear it.

He'd gotten angry at her for little things, yelled, screamed, thrown things. But then he'd come back with flowers and say he was sorry. And Zelda would always forgive him and then it'd be all better.

But Zelda knew he was only doing it so that she would sleep with him. She wished she'd broken up with him sooner, now she thought about it.

She stood now, and got ready to leave. As she walked away from the table, she saw Link sitting across from two more people his age, and two much older people. Zelda realized that they were his parents, and most likely siblings.

She walked beside his bench, which was conveniently right next to the door out of the restaurant. She stopped behind him, leaned over the back of the bench and brushed her lips against his cheek. As she pulled back from him, she whispered in his ear, "Thank you, Link."

She walked away from the bench, but still heard his mother say to him, "Who was that, Link? Did you finally find a girlfriend?"


End file.
